Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alpha decay
Beta decay
Gamma decay
Alpha decay
Alpha particle (identical to a helium nucleus) is emitted.
Travel a few centimeters in air.
Unable to penetrate the outer layer of dead skin cells.
High charge and mass, can cause serious cell injury, if in the body.
How?
Food or air.
Alexander Litvinenko – Poisoned by Polonium-210
Beta decay
Beta particle (electron or positron) is emitted.
Smaller mass.
Travel further in air for few meters.
It can penetrate skin a few millimeters.
Carl Anderson discovered the positron (the “positive
electron”) in 1932 and subsequently received the Nobel
Prize in Physics in 1936.
Gamma decay
Gamma ray does not consist of any particles, unlike its
predecessors. Instead consisting of a photon of energy
(electromagnetic radiation) being emitted from an
unstable nucleus.
No mass or charge.
Can travel 150 meters.
Can be stopped by high atomic value material
such as lead.
A radioactive compound or Radioisotope.
A Radioisotope is an unstable form of an element that emits
radiation from its nucleus as it decays.
Radioisotopes - artificial and natural.
Natural - Uranium and Thorium.
Artificial – Induced radioactivity, Radiopharmaceuticals.
Irene and Frederic Joliuo-Currie, 1934.
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the
synthesis of new radioactive isotopes 1935.
Radiopharmaceuticals
How it works?
Any substance might be “marked” by radionuclide (radioisotope), called
radiotracer, radiopharmaceutical, or radiopharmacopreparation (RPP),
that enables to locate and monitor this substance in the organs and tissues
using external detection of emitted β or γ emission.
Bones -
Phospate
Radiopharmace Thyroid –
uticals Iodine
Brain -
Glucose
RPP Has to meet the following
requirements:
Nontoxic
Strong β or γ Emission
Relationship to Definite Organ or Tissue
(Property of Specific Uptake)
Optimum Effective Semiexcretion Period
(ESP)
Quantitative parameters of radioactive
isotops:
Half-life period – the period of time, in which
radioactivity decreases to the half of initial;
Semi-excretion period – the period of time, in which the
half of administered RPP is excreted
Effective semi-excretion period - the period of time, in
which the initial radioactivity of administered RPP is
halved due to physical break-up and biological excretion
processes
Commonly Used Radioisotopes in Diagnostic
Nuclear Medicine
How are nuclear medicine imaging
tests generally performed?
We Administer the RPP to the patient
RPP is Accumulated by Investigated Organ
We can monitor the RPP accumulation and
lead out processes
We can get the information about RPP
distribution in the studied organ and construct it’s
image, as well as, receive numerical data (digits)
and curves.
cont.
For Planar scintigraphy and SPECT, gamma rays are emitted by the
radioactive isotopes in the radiotracers.
For PET, positrons that are emitted by the radioactive isotopes in the
radiotracer molecules travel several millimeters within tissue before
annihilating with electrons that are encountered, leading to emission of
two gamma rays in opposite directions.
The gamma rays leave the body, pass through a collimator (in planar
scintigraphy and SPECT), and are detected by one or more scintillation
crystals in detectors surrounding the patient. The light signals created
by the scintillation crystals are then detected by photomultiplier tubes
(PMT), which lead to creation of voltage signals that are digitized for
computers to process.
Scintillation Photomultiplier
Gamma rays Collimator
crystals tubes
Computer
Scheme for apparatus of Gamma camera system used
gamma camera system in planar scintigraphy
What is Planar Scintigraphy?
Creates non-tomographic 2D planar images of accumulation of a
radiotracer in the body.
Performed using a gamma camera system.
Limit exposure
Increase distance
Shielding
Isolation
Lastly, how does molecular imaging(NM) differ
from structural imaging(X-Ray, CT, MRT, US)?
Molecular imaging (Nuclear Medicine)
Molecular characterization of normal tissues and disease,
even when morphologic changes in tissues have not yet
occurred.
Radiography, [CT], [MRI], and [US]
Assessment of normal tissues and disease based on
morphologic and gross functional alterations.
ANY QUESTIONES?
Thorax Bones and Upper Limb
Scapula
Clavicle
Humerus
Radius and Ulna
Carpal bones
Metacarpals and
Phalanges
Shoulders
Clavicle.
Scapula.
Humerus.
Shoulder (cont.)
Anterior-Posterior View of the Scapula
Lateral View of the Scapula
Oblique and Anteroposterior View
of the Clavicle
Axial radiograph of the proximal
Humerus
Shoulder development X-Ray
Shoulder CT
Shoulder CT (cont.)
Shoulder MRT
Shoulder MRT (cont.)
Humerus
Lateral and Anterior-Posterior View of the Upper Arm
Elbow
Anterior-Posterior and Lateral View of the Elbow
Elbow radiographs, (a) 7-month-old child, (b) 3-year-old child, (c) 6-year-old child, (d)
9-year-old child
Forearm
Hand and Wrist
Hand and Wrist
Bones of the hand (dorsopalmar radiographs), (a) of a 10-month-old child, (b) of a 2-
year-old child, (c) of a 6-year-old child, (d) of a 9-year-old
child,toillustratecentresofossification,(e) of an 11-year-old child.
Elbow MRT
Forearm MRT and CT
Wrist CT and MRT
ANY QUESTIONES?